how to keep track of your story
Lost in the leaves. An all too familiar feeling when trying to keep track of all your characters, plots, sub-plots, conflicts and details. Like, "Oops, here I said that Luna was going to yoga with Connor tomorrow, but she's still lost in the Game on Thursday. Except that yoga's supposed to be Saturday, and what happened to that opal ring she was wearing..." There's a lot. And when you're trying to move the plot along, sometimes those details get overlooked.
So how can you keep track of them? I'm really asking because I totally need help with this. But, here are some things that have worked for me:
Don't worry about those details until at least your second, second draft. Focus on the big picture, keeping the plot moving and filling in major holes. You can figure out what happened to the rip in the midnight blue cloak later.
Make notes of details that matter. For me, I add them to the outline in my Google Doc as a question that needs answering. Example: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TALKING FOX? The all caps isn't necessary, but really JUMPS out at you. So, you can't ignore it.
The more time you spend with your story, the easier the big details get. But, there's still such a large scope of details, that I've found it's helpful to keep notes on each character that give me a quick synopsis, along with notes on how the timeline moves, what each setting looks like, smells like, feels like and any other pertinent details that help me visualize the story clearly. It doesn't have to be super detailed (red hair, fire cloak!) to jog your memory enough to picture it.
If you have any tips on how to stay organized, I'd love to hear them!
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